Gaming terminals, such as slot machines, video poker machines, and the like, have been a cornerstone of the gaming industry for several years. Generally, the popularity of such machines with players is dependent on the likelihood (or perceived likelihood) of winning money at the machine and the intrinsic entertainment value of the machine relative to other available gaming options.
LCDs (liquid crystal displays) have long been incorporated into gaming machines to enhance the flexibility of the displayed wagering games. However, some players prefer to see mechanical reels rather than a video rendering of a slot machine game, in part due to the more traditional appearance and perceived trustworthiness of the rotating mechanical slot reels. Utilization of mechanical reels makes the wagering game more enjoyable for such players, but limits the ability of the wagering game machine to present computer graphics and animation to enhance the theme of the wagering game or to provide other information, and so may be less entertaining to players than a wagering game utilizing a touchscreen LCD wagering game system.
Video-based slot machines allow for flexibility in game design and do not require any additional hardware for implementing different games, such as bonus games. With respect to flexibility in game design, the video display of a video-based slot machine can depict complex and entertaining graphical images, animations, and play sequences that cannot be employed in mechanical slot machines. Video-based slot machines do not require any additional hardware for implementing bonus games because the bonus game may be depicted on the primary video display and executed by the same game controller used to execute the video slot game.
Video-based slot machines and mechanical slot machines generally appeal to different segments of the market. Although many players are attracted to the complex and entertaining graphical images, animations, and play sequences afforded by video-based slot machines, many players are still drawn to mechanical slot machines because they are simplistic machines that often only pay on a single pay line and only require a pull of a handle to initiate a spin of the reels. Part of the reason that these players avoid video-based slot machines is that the simulated reels on the video-based machines are different in looks than standard mechanical reels. This is primarily due to the nature of the video screen displaying the images.
It would be beneficial to incorporate some of the features of the video-based slot machines into a traditional mechanical slot machine because of the flexibility that these video-based machines offer. A need exists for a slot machine having video-based capabilities, while still preserving the simplistic rotation of mechanical reels that traditionalists appreciate in the traditional mechanical slot machine. One type of display imposes an image on an underlying display by use of a transmissive liquid crystal display over a window which provides viewing of the underlying display which may be a mechanical reel or a simulated mechanical reel. Such a display system produces a bright front image, but the underlying display is problematic. The current generation of LCD's used to build such a display panel block more than 90% of the light in the window area under the best of conditions. This necessitates a very bright underlying display to project a marginally acceptable image in the window.